Repose, Autumn 2012

oil on linen

190 x 144 cm

THE NEW WOLF OF ROME
Philip Bacon Galleries Brisbane, 17 April - 12 May 2012


"This new allegory revisits the Roman founding myth of Lupa Capitolina. In the original, the she-wolf found the twin infants Romulus and Remus by the banks of the Tiber River. She suckled and cared for them until the shepherd Faustulus discovered them and in time, Romulus became the founder of the capital Rome.

From the ancient founding myth a new allegory is here presented; the wolf, blessed with values of the human and nature, is born from ice. She finds the crowd and she feeds and cares for it. In time the crowd, who only recognises itself and the literal, devours her. Figures and slippages abound in this cycle of works, but also present is a set of visions, drawings and images on paper. They are primal and mysterious, yet embellished with ancient Chinese nature poems and alchemic symbols; visions and imaginings of the world through the eyes of the she-wolf."

JY Autumn 2012